Measuring Planetary Parameters and Studying Planetary Aspects
''Note: As of now, no updates yet have brought new celestial bodies to the game. Please do not delete, it may be useful in a future planet update.'' Overview Measuring the radius, the g'', the SOI, and the like of a celestial body can give you information about important things to consider for missions to that celestial body. Example: *Knowing the radius of the body can help in trajectory. *Knowing the ''g, or the acceleration due to gravity of a body will help you in landing, flybys, and gravity assists. *Knowing the radius of the body's sphere of influence will help with orbital activities. *Knowing the height of the atmosphere of the body can help with overheating problems in orbiting stations, aerobraking, and predicting the time of splashdown. How to do it It is highly recommended to follow the instructions, especially for the newbies to this skill, in order to avoid confusion and losses. #'Determine the locations, distance, and name of the celestial body you want to measure.' How could you measure a celestial body if you do not know what it is? Location is very important especially for fuel cuts, to minimize course corrections. Let us say, if you know the location of KAT, it is unlikely you will do a Trans-Pur Injection. Distance, is also a factor, especially for limited supplies. Further distances mean your supplies, like electricity and fuel, will be depleted as they are used up for much longer. Trying to travel at fast speeds, like more than the red limit in the gauge means that your ship gobbles a lot of fuel boosting and reducing its speed. Name is the most important, as a normal NaviComp waypoint will usually not display blank waypoints. That is basically rule of thumb. #'Plan your flotilla. Choose your spacecraft. Wisely.' You must have a good spacecraft. Neither a chuggy-chug-chug always thirsty soda addict spacecraft that consumes a lot of fuel, nor a puffy-puff-puff slow thruster powered spacecraft that is more of a tug that is not practically useful. Traveling long distances need spacecraft with higher fuel capacity, and long-lasting supplies. An example of this is the ATV and the SBT. It is advisable to bring an extra tank and a resupply craft, like an Orion or a Draco. Good as well if you have QLs, as you can put any resupply thingy like a SAL or a Station Refuel Silo. For planning your troop, it is suggested that you use unmanned spacecraft, to cut costs for returning crew home. You may choose to have 2 or more spacecraft for measuring the radius, a lander in case it is a solid planet, a spacecraft with atmospheric entry capability in case it has an atmosphere, such as an atmospheric probe, to take measurements, and an orbiter, usually photographic/has long life, to study the planet and return pictures. Examples of these are the photographic telescope and the survey satellite. #'Execute the mission and travel to the target body. In the most efficient way.' So, you want to maximize resources as much as possible. Make sure to have as little course corrections on the way, and have no problems if possible. For course corrections, you must aim at the direction you want to go, and rearward, to increase centrifugal force by slowing down and turning. Once you are done, reboost your spacecraft to its speed again. You may stop in between course corrections to speed up. However, have as minimal course corrections as you can to minimize fuel consumption. You may use Cartesian Navigation to have literally no course corrections whatsoever. #'Check for any problems in the spacecraft(s) before arriving. As Soon As Possible.' In instruction No. 2, it said that you should plan your flotilla. So, check if your flotilla is complete. If it is complete, check if they have enough supplies. If they do, proceed to checking for course anomalies. If there is, please refer to instruction No. 3. #'Slow down efficiently. And safely.' You may either use fuel, electricity (if your craft has ION Engines or Drives), or aerobraking (if the body has an atmosphere.). You may aerobrake by allowing a non-reenterable part to swiftly move through the body's atmosphere without burning up. The atmosphere will slow you down, and get you into orbit usually instead of escape. Once you are in orbit, accelerate to escape velocity, and slow down using propulsion. It will save you some fuel or power instead of doing the stopping maneuver fully by engine. If you escape, you have to use fuel or electricity as you made a gravity assist. Aerobraking is a weird method, but risky as well. Rule of thumb. For using fuel to slow down, it is recommended to start the burn within ~100-200 NCu, if you are coming with a speed in the lower red range in the Velocity gauge. Orbiters may have the orbit near the edge of the body's SOI by keeping their velocity in the green range. Landers should have a lower and slower orbit. This may be accomplished by slowing down to the lower green range in the gauge, and adjusting the trajectory so it enters with a medium orbit. The lander may be landed after everything is in place. The atmospheric probes must have a very low and slow orbit, nearly touching the atmosphere. Just like the landers, they can be entered after everything is in place. #'Put everything in place. Correctly and successfully.' Now, make sure the orbiters, landers, and atmo probes get into their proper orbits. Now, have your 2 geometric positioning spacecraft at their correct positions, pointing at the atmosphere boundary/surface. Make sure that the 2 spacecraft are parallel, or else, the measurements will be inaccurate. #'Do your measurements! Accurately and precisely.' This is the climax! This will teach you how to get measurements. * The first measurement is the radius. To get the radius, we get the half of the diameter. D = 2R Original Formula D/2 = 2R/2 Divide both sides by 2 to transpose D/2 = 2R/2 Cancel, 2/2 = 1, 1R = R = R Final answer Where: D is diameter of the body R is radius of the body Substitution: We have a planet with diameter 12. What is the radius? D/2 = R 12/2 = R = R or R = 6 * What if we have to measure the atmosphere, too? We will just need to adjust one to make its directional line touch the surface. Why? Refer to figure below. | A t m o s p h e r e | S u r f a c e | A t m o s p h e r e | Spacecraft Craft A Craft B Now Craft B Before NCu dist. 0 9 10 Based on the figure above, Craft B's distance from A when its direction line touched the atmosphere was 10 NaviComp units. But when B's direction line touched the surface/sea level it is 9 NaviComp units away from A. We will still get the same results even if we used radial distance. Why? The height of the atmosphere is: a = k - s from: s + a = k Formula s + (-s) + a = k - s Add both sides to s'''s inverse to get ''s to the other side s + (-s) + a = k - s Cancel, s + - s = s - s, s - s = 0, 0 + a = a = k - s Final answer Where: a ''is the atmosphere's height ''k ''is the height of the body's ''karman line (boundary between atmosphere and space) s'' is the height at sea level of the body or the mean surface height Substitution: We have a gas planet with the height of the tallest cloud tops at 100 and an estimated surface level from its core at 75. Find the atmosphere's height. solution a = k - s a = 100 - 75 = 25 * For landing, just make sure you land at the pink tic mark, and for atmospheric entry for the probe, just puff thrusters to touch the atmosphere. 8. '''You should not have brought your guyzzz!!! Now that's your problem! '''It is not advisable to bring astronauts, as they may die from lack of supplies. If you did, lucky the update is not yet here. If the update is here, uhh-------------------- Okay, if it is unmanned, you may just crash the spacecraft into the planet, if you do not have enough fuel remaining. '''Congratulations! You did it! What a great contribution you made to SA science and wiki! Thanks!!!' Gallery Please feel free to expand and proofread this article and add your own photos and videos. It is just the birth of this page. Thank you! Category:Fan Content Category:Content Category:Gameplay Category:Tutorial